%%%%%%%%%%%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!%%%%%%%%%%%%->'''Simon Skinner:''' I'm simply suggesting that young Peter be given a second chance, before he becomes just another crime statistic. I'm sure he's going to learn a valuable lesson.->'''Sgt. Tony''': Stealing biscuits is... wrong?-->--''Film/HotFuzz''

Friends, there comes a time in everyone's life when they can no longer sit quietly and say nothing. Sometimes, a man's got to take a moral stand, even though it may not be popular and even though it might get him into trouble. Today, my friends, is that day. I won't stay silent any longer.

This is a trope for when characters are treated as brave revolutionaries by the other characters in the work for stating the obvious: that [[ObviouslyEvil Eyepatch Q. Blackheart]] [[AndThatsTerrible is a bad man]], that [[ThoseWackyNazis the Nazis]] were evil, that cancer is bad, etc. Can also apply to situations or things instead of people. The important part of the trope is the reaction of others. This isn't about the work's moral message, it's about a character being treated as brave for making statements that are completely in line with the majority opinion around him.

Obviously there's {{Truth in Television}} here. ValuesDissonance can sometimes result in this, if the Aesop really ''was'' revolutionary and controversial for its time/place. Also, some Aesops are uncontroversial when spoken as a plain statement, but have an implicit, less-widely-agreed-to message, such as "We're not yet doing enough about this." For example, it's easy to say "Bigotry is bad", but programs designed to help disadvantaged minorities, like affirmative action and hate crime legislation, are [[LoveItOrHateIt polarizing]] political issues with no clear right or wrong answers. %%And that's all we need to say on that.

This trope is PlayedForLaughs quite often, hence why so many of these examples are parodies, but [[UndeadHorseTrope straight examples are still fairly common]].

Compare {{Anvilicious}}, AndThatsTerrible, StockAesops, and DrugsAreBad. Similar to CaptainObviousReveal, when the characters are astonished by [[TheReveal a twist]] the audience can totally see coming. Contrast FamilyUnfriendlyAesop and {{Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped}}.

----!!Examples

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[[folder:Advertising]]* A much-mocked 2010s Dutch TV ad for the painkiller Advil famously proclaimed that "migraine is not flu. Because migraine is an unbearable headache".* Most of the Guinness "Brilliant!" ads were like this:-->"Don't drink six beers at the same time? Brilliant!"[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]* In the episode "Cruise to Hell" of ''Manga/GegegeNoKitaro'' this trope is played for laughs. Two criminals called Masakishi and Mamezo are sent to Hell without even needing to wait until they die, as a punishment for the evil lives they've led.-->'''Mamezo''': I guess doing bad things is, um, bad.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comics]]* [[http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/12/30/worst-comics-2010-superman-grounded/ This]] article mocks the ''Grounded'' AbortedArc of Franchise/{{Superman}} for this, pointing out that Superman appears to be making the statement that drug dealers and child abuse are bad and treating it as though it's some radical new idea.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fanfics]]* ''Fanfic/MyLittleUnicorn'': ** One of the many Aesops given out by the Grand Ruler can be summed up as "There are different ways to solve problems."** Another one deals with how nightmares are frightening.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]* ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'' argues that even if human emotion causes problems, it's still worth it. So if you were planning on turning all of humanity into emotionless automatons, think again! * ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'' tells us that [[BeYourself being yourself is good]] and cliques and bullying are bad. Thanks HSM, no one's ever thought of that before.* ''Film/TheRoom'': Tommy Wiseau claims the message of the film is "If a lot of people love each other, the world would be a better place to live", which his character Johnny in fact [[{{Anvilicious}} baldly states]] at one point in the film.* Morgan Spurlock's experiment in ''Film/SuperSizeMe'', which demonstrates that excessive fast food isn't good for your health. Spurlock lampshades it and stresses that the point is to show just ''how'' bad it is for you, which surprises even his doctors. The film as a whole is about how fast food has become such an ingrained aspect of American culture.* ''Film/GrizzlyMan'': The most reductive message of the documentary is a rather obvious "Don't hang around grizzly bears, because they will eat you like they did Timothy Treadwell." The director Creator/WernerHerzog, however, uses Treadwell's footage to attack his NewAgeRetroHippie outlook on nature as a benevolent force. In fact, Herzog has described the film as an "argument" he's having over their different perspectives on man's place in the natural world.* The moral of ''Film/{{The Purge}}'' is that making all crime legal for one day a year is not a good idea.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* Spoofed in the TanyaHuff novel ''[[Literature/ConfederationOfValor The Better Part of Valor]]'' when the main character explains how she wound up with a terrible assignment and says the lesson to be learned is, "never call your commanding officer a bastard to his face."* [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] by George Orwell in his essay ''Looking Back on the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar Spanish War]]'':--> We have become too civilized to grasp the obvious. For the truth is very simple. To survive you often have to fight, and to fight you have to dirty yourself. [[WarIsHell War is evil]], and it is often the lesser evil. [[Literature/TheBible Those who take the sword perish by the sword]], and those who don't take the sword perish by smelly diseases. The fact that such a [[CaptainObviousAesop platitude]] is worth writing down shows what the years of ''rentier'' capitalism have done to us. ** On the other hand, Orwell also wrote:--> To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]* {{Lampshaded}} on ''Series/{{Community}}'' at one point when Britta and Annie are staging a demonstration to raise awareness about the environmental effects of the oil spill in the gulf. Britta is angry and yelling about how horrible it is to people passing by when someone mockingly points out that she doesn't need to yell at them, nobody is on the other side of this issue.* Happens on ''DrPhil'' often. Usually he ends up telling people something that they should already know, like that it's not okay to cheat on your wife, or it's bad to abuse your family, or that child molestation is horrible. But the people on the show will act like he's telling them something radical that they've never considered and will be belligerent to the end.* Referred to in an introduction to the ''Series/FatherTed'' scripts by Graham Linehan. Commenting on the MistakenForRacist episode 'Are You Right There Ted?', Linehan says that it seems to be the only story that has a moral... but if it does it's only 'Don't be racist' which he sarcastically says is 'pretty strong stuff'* Played with in ''Series/HorribleHistories'' involving the TropeNamer himself: Aesop is sent to distribute alms to a Greek city... unfortunately his idea of crowd control involves increasingly patronising reminders of his "moral tales". The crowd's (hilariously matter-of-fact) response: "Have you ever heard the story about the fable writer and the cliff? It's a story about a highly annoying fable writer who gets thrown off a cliff by an angry mob." "Yeah, it's a moral tale about not annoying an angry mob."* Joked with occasionally on ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'', when they warn against an obviously dangerous act due to a lesser-known risk associated with it that they had spent the episode proving was possible:** "Don't leave loaded guns in exploding rooms" - The myth was about a certain make of gun reputed to [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns fire on its own if vibrated in a certain way]]. The original myth was about this happening via a car stereo system, but they had to eventually set off an explosion near the gun to make it happen.** "Don't stand near a car fire" - Because it's possible for the fire to make the car's bumper launch off at dangerous speeds. The Series/{{Mythbusters}} couldn't make this happen themselves, but proved it was possible by finding a firewoman who had her legs broken as a result of this happening.* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' can be prone to this sometimes. ** The [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries original series]] had the Nazi planet episode, which involved a well-intentioned historian converting an alien planet into a recreation of Nazi Germany because, from what he knew of history, it seemed to him like a good way to introduce order to the people. [[KirkSummation Kirk has to explain to him]] the Aesop of "What Hitler did was wrong. Don't do that." Also doubles as a BrokenAesop with a touch of HistoryMarchesOn, as it turned out later on that [[FascistButInefficient Nazi Germany was not the model of efficiency people assumed it was]].[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]* Music/MichaelJackson gets some of this from the VocalMinority of his fanbase:** Joe Vogel's book-length essay ''Earth Song: Inside Music/MichaelJackson's Magnum Opus'' argues that (to quote its back cover) the 1995 number "defied the cynicism and apathy of Generation X... it demanded accountability in an era of corporate greed, globalization and environmental indifference", which was a major reason why the song and video didn't catch on in the U.S. But the "challenging" message is that... pollution, environmental destruction, the killing of wild animals (''especially'' endangered ones), and war are bad things. Those "cynical" Generation Xers, and most everyone else in the U.S., knew that already by TheNineties, a decade ''rife'' with [[GreenAesop green Aesops]]. As well, Jackson never gave concrete ''solutions'' to such problems in his work, apparently thinking that these things are only done ForTheEvulz and/or by greedy people who could stop whenever they wanted to with no consequences.** "Black or White" also [[http://www.allforloveblog.com/?p=7890 gets praised]] for saying that racism, war, and the Ku Klux Klan are bad -- in 1991. Even if the infamous crotch-grabbing "panther dance" coda is interpreted as Jackson showing solidarity with groups like the Black Panthers, he was rather late to the party on that one.* Music/TomLehrer's song "The Folk Song Army" and its introduction (see [[Quotes/CaptainObviousAesop quotes page]]):-->''We are the folk song army\\Every one of us cares\\We all hate poverty, war and injustice\\Unlike [[TakeThat the rest]] [[YouSuck of you squares]]''[[/folder]]

[[folder:New Media]]* If you are on Facebook, you've seen your "friends" asking everyone to put in their status that they support things like "Don't abuse animals". Really kind of annoying.** What makes it worse is that they do it under the pretense of SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped. Sadly, [[TropesAreNotGood it doesn't always work that way]]; that can actually be a pretty hard bull's eye to hit.** There are also countless pictures going around with this message. The ones of a soldier or a soldier's funeral will say something like "1 LIKE = 1 PRAYER TO THE FAMILY", and the pictures of sick children (usually bald due to cancer, but for some reason children with progeria are also common) saying "Like if you think this kid is the most beautiful child ever!" It gets kind of weird because very few people would say that a soldier deserves to die or that children with terminal illnesses are ugly.** In short, think of them as {{Glurge}}-tastic new forms of {{chain letter}}s.** Usually tagged with something like "LIKE and SHARE if you think kitten-burning is a terrible thing!", as if to imply that if I don't immediately hit the "like" and "share" buttons I must necessarily think kitten-burning (bullying, child abuse, name it) is a WONDERFUL thing that everyone should try.** This trope is actually [[ExploitedTrope exploited]] by the controversial political group Britain First. Their pages have their political views in between such things as infographics decrying animal cruelty, anti-paedophilia memes, support our troops/football team memes, don't leave dogs in hot cars memes, etc, so that many will like/share those and then get sucked in to the political views.* The ''[[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2008/10/08/false-witnesses-2/ Slacktivist]]'' refers to this as the "Anti Kitten-Burning Coalition".-->... the weird part: Most of the commenters and letter-writers didn't seem to ''notice'' that they were expressing a unanimous and noncontroversial sentiment. Their comments and letters were contentious and sort of aggressively defensive. Or maybe defensively aggressive.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]* This trope tends to come up as an unspoken premise whenever there's a feud between TheCape and an AntiVillain. The babyface wrestler will always do the right thing and will be showered with praise for it, even though he/she is so full of IncorruptiblePurePureness that he/she was never at risk of doing the ''wrong'' thing, so [[HardWorkHardlyWorks his/her efforts are meaningless]]. Prime example: the {{Wrestling/Kane}} vs. JohnCena "Embrace the Hate" feud.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]* ''VideoGame/{{Antichamber}}'': The quotes you find scattered throughout are intended to be both clues and musings on the nature of life (see the game's original title). Many find them more useful as the former than the latter.* Though there are more profound aesops to be found in the game, one of the major ones of ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' basically boils down to "Racism is bad, mkay?"[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]* Brought up in [[http://tompreston.deviantart.com/art/Quote-Unquote-368116247 this strip of]] ''So... You're a Cartoonist?'' Andrew says he's thinking of making a comic addressing terrorism or gun control. His friend argues that criticizing something everyone already hates takes no real effort. Andrew thus decides to give himself a challenge and [[FlameWar deliberately unleash a flame war]]... about [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]].[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]* In ''20 Socially Unacceptable Things'' by [[WebVideo/MatthewSantoro Matt Santoro]], Matt tells the audience that it's bad to pick your nose.* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic tends to rip into movies for this. In his review of ''Film/TheCell'', he's rather baffled at what the audience is supposed to take out of the scenes which [[spoiler:show that the serial killer was beaten as a child, by his father]]. The Critic seems to find it a given that most every one already knows that [[spoiler:child abuse]] is bad.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]* One "Sonic Says" segment from ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' tells kids not to climb into washing machines.** [[YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb Several kids probably needed this Aesop.]]* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': Everyone knows that [[GreenAesop dumping an oil tanker in the ocean is a bad idea,]] yet everyone keeps going on about it. The writers reportedly did this on purpose, since more nuanced villains might have been too close to home--i.e., companies their young viewers' parents worked for, or they might fall squarely into StrawmanHasAPoint if they allowed a realistic portrayal of an oil executive being upset at what his employees were doing.* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/DonkeyKongCountry''. Often, when King K. Rool conjures up a plan to steal something (usually the [[MacGuffin Crystal Coconut]]), [[TheBrute loveable ol' Krusha]] says something like "Stealing is baaaaaaad".--> '''K. Rool:''' Of ''course'' it's bad! ''[[CardCarryingVillain We're bad!]]''* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' when Congressmen finally realize smoking is bad.-->'''Congressman:''' Smoking is a horrible vice! It shortens life expectancy and pollutes our air. And according to recent polls, air is good!** And in the same episode: "Hey. We had a lot of fun today. But you know what's not funny? Killing strippers."** In "A Fresh Heir", Peter's rich father-in-law decides to leave all of his money to Chris, meaning Peter won't be able to get to it like he had been planning to do with Lois. Peter decides to marry Chris (Just roll with it), but decides not to at the end of the episode.-->'''Peter:''' And I guess I learned it's wrong to take your son to Vermont under false pretenses to try to marry him for his inheritance.-->'''Stewie:''' You...you should have known that.* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':-->'''Jack Johnson:''' It's time that someone had the courage to stand up and say: "I'm against those things that everybody hates!"-->'''John Jackson:''' I respect my opponent. He's a good man. But frankly, I agree with everything he just said!* ''WesternAnimation/{{Redakai}}''[='=]s pilot had the aesop "Slavery is bad." Really, there weren't enough plot points or other threads for the moral to be anything else. The "Taunting someone for a skin-blemish" potential moral is never closed. Nope. Slavery is bad.* ''Sabrina's Secret Life'' has an episode where Sabrina "learns" that rumours are bad and the only way to stop them is to out them as a pack of lies. Did we mention she's fifteen and yet every character spends the episode behaving like a 6-year-old?* Parodied UpToEleven on a famous episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':-->'''Mr. Mackey:''' DrugsAreBad. [[CircularReasoning Because doing drugs is a bad thing to do.]] If you do drugs, you are a bad person. So don't do drugs. [[CatchPhrase Mmkay?]]"[[/folder]]----